Today, I am technically 32 weeks + 3 days along into my pregnancy. The past day or two, I felt like where I normally felt Baby B, had gone quiet. Obviously this worried me a little bit, but with twins, they are obviously moving and hard to know for sure what baby I am feeling or know where they are. So, I went to the hospital, up to Labor & Delivery and asked if I could be checked.
They did a quick ultrasound to find the heartbeat of both babies and checked to make sure they both had enough amniotic fluid, which they did. They were both also head down which was new for me. Shew! Then, they hooked me up to a machine that tracked each babies heart rate as well as if I was experiencing any contractions for at least 30 minutes. When the nurse came in, she looked at the chart and said the babies were doing well, but I was having more contractions than I should be, so they left me on the machine to monitor them and they had me start drinking a lot of water.
After a while, they sent in another doctor to take some vaginal swabs as well as check my cervix to make sure I wasn't going into preterm labor. First of all, having your cervix checked is one of the most uncomfortable and somewhat painful experiences that I have had to endure during this entire pregnancy. I hated every second of it. He said my cervix was closed and he would send the swabs to the lab to check for a few things. The labs came back negative for anything which was also good. In this situation when they have someone contracting as much as I was, they like to keep the patient hooked up to the machine and then recheck the cervix in about 2 hours.
So, I just hung out in the room, watching the chart mark my contractions, drinking my big jug of water. Unfortunately, the water wasn't helping. Water can help when you are experiencing contractions because the uterus is a muscle and if it's dehydrated then it can cause it to contract. Since the water I was drinking wasn't helping, they wanted to put me on an IV of fluids to help. That was a pain. I had 3 people poking me, trying to find a good vein in my forearm. Apparently my veins weren't being very cooperative today. So, I now have 2 huge bruises where they stuck, nicked the artery, but couldn't get what they needed so pulled out. They are so tender! Since the first 2 people couldn't get it, they had a lieutenant come in to finally put the IV in my arm. Thankfully, she succeeded!
They pumped me with 2 IV bags and I was still contracting. I was moved into another room because they needed the one I was in apparently. That was fine with me, because I went into a delivery room it looked like, with a TV and a view of the ocean! So, I laid there for a while longer and had my cervix checked twice more during this time. The doctor I had at first was switched out for a midwife, who I didn't like the first time I met but by the end of my visit, I loved.
While I was at the hospital, I asked 3 different people when I was supposed to deliver with identical twins. The first lady who did my ultrasound said 38-39 weeks. Um... Wrong. Then I asked a nurse who said about 37 weeks. I liked her answer better. Then I asked the midwife and she said about 36-37 weeks. I explained to her that my next doctors appointment wasn't for another 4 weeks, which i would be 36.5 weeks along and she seemed concerned.
"You should be getting checked every 2 weeks."
Luckily, I agreed!
I told her which doctor I used (and they varied every appointment but I told her my favorite one) and she went and called him! She asked why I didn't have an appointment for 4 more weeks and he agreed I needed one sooner, so I have another appointment set up for 2 weeks from today with him. He also told the midwife that my expected delivery was at 36 weeks which is Feb 15. If we follow through with him, which I want, I'm assuming the babies will be born (if they don't come early) between Feb. 15-22.
They sent me home about 6 hours after I arrived. Talk about an unexpected full day at the hospital! I also didn't eat anything from 9am until 5pm. Thankfully I wasn't too hungry since they were pumping me with water and fluids. The midwife said that I may just be contracting because its more common with twins. Since my cervix didn't change within the time I was there, they didn't seem worried I was experiencing preterm labor.
Tomorrow, I have a growth scan ultrasound so it will be nice to see how much the twins have grown in 4.5 weeks. I am very glad that everything turned out okay today, even if my day was spent with needles and machines hooked up to me.
Prayers that everything goes well for the last 4-5 weeks of the pregnancy! We want these babies to cook more and develop as much as possible.
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